Stress, Coping, and Social Support Processes: Where Are We? What Next?

“…of new methods of measuring stress have been developed and refined (e.g., Bolger et al. 1989a; Brown and Harris 1978, 1989; Dohrenwend et al. 1993; Pearlin and Schooler 1978; Wheaton 1991; Zautra, Guarnaccia, and Dohrenwend 1986), and stress theory has been elaborated to incorporate factors which…”

“…use problem-focused coping strategies or to have an active coping style (Menaghan 1982, 1983; Menaghan and Merves 1984; Pearlin and Schooler 1978; Pearlin et al. 1981; Ross and Mirowsky 1989), most of these studies also show that problem-focused coping either has no effects on or in some cases…”

“Thoits (1995), in a review of the study of stress, concluded that one’s sense of power over a situation or ability to achieve a role determines the extent to which they will utilize “problem-focused coping.””

“support to be high, they may engage in support seeking, which in turn may be related to higher stress (see Coyne & Downey, 1991; Thoits, 1995).”

“For example, research has shown that an acute stressor may initiate immediate support mobilization, whereas chronic stressors, as often experienced by parents of children with ASD, may erode support over time (Thoits, 1995).”

“These potential mediating effects have been proposed in the psychology, sociology, and occupational literatures (e.g., Sand & Miyazaki, 2000; Terry, Rawle, & Callan, 1995; Thoits, 1995).”

“Yet it has been shown that the negative aspects of social relationships (characterised by conflict, criticism, and interference) are independent of the positive aspects of support (Rook, 1984) and strongly related to psychological functioning (Coyne & DeLongis, 1986; Helgeson, 1993; Schreurs & de Ridder, 1997; Thoits,…”

“To guide our analytical approach, as noted, we used a general stress process model (Adams & Boscarino, 2005; Boscarino, 2004; Pearlin, 1989; Thoits, 1995).”

“The beneficial effects of social support are generally accepted (Cohen & Wills, 1985; Kessler, Price, & Wortman, 1985; Lin & Peek, 1999; Thoits, 1995; Turner & Turner, 1999).”

“Particularly emotional support (e.g. provide empathy, listen to others’ concerns) was proposed to be meaningful for coping with psychological strain and with diseases (Berkman, 1995; Buunk, 1990; Thoits, 1995).”

“This process of understanding intervening mechanisms and the relative impact of each of these mechanisms on health outcomes is essential for designing effective interventions (Gottlieb, 2000; Seeman, 1996; Thoits, 1995, 2011).”

“…are people with high socioeconomic status typically exposed to less stress relative to those in the low socioeconomic strata, but the former are also more apt to have increased social psychological resources such as a sense of personal control and social support (Ross and Wu 1996; Thoits 1995).”

“Strong social ties have been found to protect individuals from a myriad of mental health problems ranging from mild depression to suicide (Thoits, 1995).”

“Previous research has acknowledged the associations between marital status and psychological wellbeing (e.g. Waite, 1995); social support and psychological wellbeing (e.g. Thoits, 1995); and marital status and social support (e.g. Pugliesi & Shook, 1998).”

“High-quality familial ties provide unique sources of support for older adults, and in doing so, may promote positive ways of coping with depression (Harvey, Hotopk, ; verland, & Mykeltun, 2010; Thoits, 1995).”

“Psychosocial resources that regulate the health impact of stress, such as social support and sense of mastery, are key elements of the stress process because they may disrupt the relationship between stress and distress.(1,5) Minority stress theory contends that minority populations also can be exposed to unique stres…”

“It is quite evident that when these mechanisms are put in place, patterns of chronic stress develop [55].”

“For example, research has shown that an acute stressor may initiate immediate support mobilisation, whereas chronic stressors, as often experienced by parents of children with autistic spectrum disorder, may erode support over time (Thoits, 1995).”

“…of informal support are instrumental, such as people other than the caregiver provide assistance to the care recipient, and emotional, such as the caregiver has people to whom she can talk about a difficult situation (House, Umberson, & Landis, 1988; Sarason, Pierce, & Sarason, 1990; Thoits, 1995).”

“The risk index was comprised of 8 dichotomous indicators measured from birth to age 3 years: (1) single parent household; (2) mother under age 18 years at child’s birth; (3) ≥4 children in the household; (4) mother a high school dropout; (5) family income <185% of the federal poverty level; (6) mother unemployed; (7)…”

“It is less evident that stress and reduced resources influence mental health among older adults (Thoits, 1995).”

“Outside the work context, it has long been established that social support can reduce ill health and psychological disturbance, but, for this relationship too, there is a lack of studies which serve to examine the possible intervening mechanisms (30).”

“Informational and tangible support types have been conceptualized as forms of action-facilitating support, as they involve actively trying to solve a problem Cutrona & Suhr, 1992; Thoits, 1995).”

“However, Thoits [46] reported that some stressful events could result in a loss of social support.”

“For example, Vaux, Riedel, and Stewart (1987) suggested that although the Social Support Behaviors Scale was designed to assess available support, with modifications to the wording it can, and has been, used to assess received support.”

“…the very extensive literature on social support, social integration and the negative effects of social isolation (e.g. Stroebe & Stroebe, 1996), although it is also important to note that social support should not be viewed as an unmixed blessing, as Thoits (1995), for instance, has demonstrated.”

“…better physical and mental health and usually buffers the damaging mental and physical health impacts of major life events and chronic strains " (Thoits, 1995, p. 64), it would seem advantageous to focus efforts on measuring emotional support specifically among student service members/ veterans.”

“11 Caregiver stress can proliferate when the caregiver has difficulty meeting ongoing demands (eg role overload, or loss of self in the caregiving role), which in turn may create new problems for the caregiver”

“Second, prior research found that perceived support was more strongly correlated with psychological well-being than was received support (Thoits, 1995; Turner & Marino, 1994; Wethington & Kessler, 1986).”

“First, was there an increase in alcohol use after the World Trade Center Disaster (WTCD)? Second, was postdisaster alcohol use associated with later physical and psychological problems? Third, were the associations between alcohol use and mental health status maintained once other factors, such as demographic characte…”

“The effectiveness of these coping strategies, however, is also a subject of discussion (Thoits, 1995; Miller & Major, 2000; Herman, 1993).”

“Such adaptive guidance could help peers to not only solve problems, as was the case with our guided chat tool, but also help peers to build social connection—an important preventive factor in mental health [78,79].”

“The aim of social support is to reduce the deleterious effects of stress by the provision of coping assistance in response to expressed or perceived distress (Thoits, 1995).”

“Self-esteem buffers emotional consequences of stressors and significantly reduces psychological symptoms (Thoits 1995).”

“Overall, our findings are consistent with the conceptualization of social support as coping assistance (9, 55 ) and the usefulness of family support as a coping resource (12,13,56,57).”

“Social support and religiosity were associated with wellbeing in other studies (Coyne, 1991; Ellison, 1991; Thoits, 1995; Pargament, et al., 2005; Shreve-Neiger and Edelstein, 2004).”

“…or anxiety in the general population and amongst various groups of carers is locus of control – i.e. the predisposition to perceive events as under one’s own (internal) control or as controlled by other (external) factors (see Rodin, 1986; Thoits, 1995; Turner and Roszell, 1994 for reviews).”

“The group ‘significant others’ includes persons who are relevant for the patients, in this case for instance co-workers, health care professionals or other MS patients [18]; that is to say, relevant persons besides ‘family (including partner)’, and ‘friends’.”

“Research in this area has been criticized for the lack of empirical examination of possible mechanisms by which personality and social support influence one’s health (Smith, 1992; Thoits, 1995 ).”

“However, studies examining the mechanisms by which peer support works are still lacking (Thoits, 1995).”

“Are the stressors we describe best understood as daily hassles, chronic strains, or life events (Thoits, 1995)?”

“Theories that articulate the negative health consequences of stress—combined with the conceptualization of incarceration as a stressful, isolating, and stigmatizing life event—motivate the exploration of the relationship between incarceration and mental health (Goffman, 1961; Massoglia & Pridemore, 2015; Schnittker, M…”

“Past conceptualizations of factors conditioning the use of different coping strategies have pointed to the importance of social structural characteristics, such as level of education, in determining the choice of coping options (Pearlin, 1989; Pearlin & Schooler, 1978; Thoits, 1995).”

“…responses to stressful life events and have been explored in a variety of research studies on coping with painful life experiences (Livneh, 2000; Salovey, Rothman, Detweiler, & Steward, 2000; Spira & Kenemore, 2000; Spitzberg & Rhea, 1999; Thoits, 1995; Valentiner, Foa, Riggs, & Gershuny; 1996).”

“are known to use caffeine as a coping strategy during stressful situations.(59,60)”

“…can provide social, emotional, and instrumental support in the aftermath of identity theft, and by doing so, help lessen the impact of victimization on physical symptomology (Arias, Lyons, & Street, 1997; Choenaron, Williams, & Hagerty, 2005; Evans, Steel, Watkins, & DiLillo, 2014; Thoits, 1995).”

“Males and females also differ in how social support is utilized (Taylor et al., 2000; Thoits, 1995).”

“Although it has been suggested that this differential distribution according to gender may account for women’s greater psychological distress, Thoits (1995) notes inconsistent support for this argument and calls for more research to clarify the complex relationship among personality…”

“An older person’s belief that social support is available and accessible may function as a safety net that supports self-esteem and autonomy and brings about the resolution of health-related challenges without actual intervention (Krause, 1997, 2001; Thoits, 1995).”

“The model in Figure 1 is grounded in the ‘‘stress-buffering’’ framework of social support (Schwarzer & Leppin, 1991; Thoits, 1995).”

“Researchers agree that disadvantaged minority women tend to have very limited access to coping resources (Thoits, 1995) that would enable them to use active or problemfocused strategies.”

“As stress researchers note (e.g., Thoits, 1995), increased alcohol consumption may be a coping strategy used to deal with stressful events, but it is not a very effective one.”

“Support may be perceived (i.e., the belief that love, caring and assistance are potentially available from others) or received (i.e., the actual use of others for caring, assistance, appraisal; Thoits 1995; activated networks in the structural tradition; Knoke 1990).”

“…with the vast literature on social supports and their ameliorative effects on responses to life stress (Cohen and Wills 1985; Dunkel-Schetter and Bennett 1990; House and Kahn 1985; House, Landis, and Umberson 1988; Kessler and McLeod 1984; Thoits 1995; Wheaton 1985; Wethington and Kessler 1986).”

“…there is increasing interest in the beneficial role social support may play in sport, there is, as is true of general social psychology (Cohen, 1988; Cohen, Gottlieb, & Underwood, 2000; Thoits, 1995), need for further empirical evidence demonstrating which aspects of social support help and how.”

“Three factors related to perceived support from friends, family, and other relations were also specified, inasmuch as social networks have been implicated in an individual’s recognition of a health problem and in influencing how the problem is cared for (Pescosolido, Wright, Alegría, & Vera, 1998; Thoits, 1995; Kouzis…”

“While the precise mechanisms remain elusive, social networks are seen to benefit health by reducing stress and/or insulating individuals from stress or events, and enabling coping through access to needed support (Cobb, 1976; Cohen & Syme, 1985; Oakely, 1992; Thoits, 1995).”